Helping to build the two millionth Land Rover Defender

The two millionth Land Rover Defender was sold for £400,000 at auction last night – and the Telegraph's Alex Robbins played his own small part in its creation

Once, I tried to fit a set of ignition leads to a two-litre Ford Capri that I owned.

Anyone with any memory of old Fords will know that this is one of the simplest possible jobs to do on one of the simplest possible cars to work on. Yet I still managed to cock it up.

How? Well, I couldn’t work it out – until a friend came round to help sort out my mess. I lifted the bonnet, and there, sitting on top of the inner wing, was the rotor arm.

I had forgotten to put it back in before clipping the distributor cap on; a mistake which is, in mechanical terms, a bit like forgetting to put the plug in when trying to do the washing up.

I relate this story to give you some idea of my complete lack of natural ability when it comes to matters mechanical.

It’s bizarre, really. I’m fine with DIY around the house, and I understand perfectly well how the oily bits of a car work. But for some reason, when it comes to fumbling around with them, I end up breaking more than I fix.

Alex clocks in before beginning work on the two millionth Land Rover Defender

This chequered past is something of which Land Rover was probably unaware when it offered me the chance to go to its Solihull factory and help build a Defender.

Not just any Defender, either. This one would be the two millionth to roll down the production line, and something of a swansong for the model, which is to cease production in February after 67 years on sale.

Not, in other words, the sort of vehicle you really want someone who can’t tell one end of a socket wrench from the other working on.

Fortunately, when I arrived at the famous Lode Lane factory, I was informed that I’d be doing nothing more involved than fitting the Defender’s two door cards – the interior panels that cover up the inner metalwork and workings of the door.

Fitting would simply be a case of pressing in a few studs and screwing in a few screws. Even I couldn’t mess it up – or so the foreman said. In the back of my mind, a small voice said: “Yes, but he hasn’t seen you try to work on a car before.”

Fitting the door cards 'should' be impossible to get wrong

These particular door cards were leather-lined, as befitted this rather special one-off Defender. Though one wonders what Maurice Wilks, the man who came up with the basic concept of the Land Rover we know and love today, would think of such upmarket materials finding a home in his rugged off-road runaround.

Indeed, one wonders whether Wilks, then Rover's engineering director, could have predicted his pet project – born of old Jeep bits, a Rover 1.6-litre petrol engine, hand-pressed aluminium and an ingenious four-wheel-drive system – would make it to the two million mark.

He probably had an inkling, actually. Some 8,000 Land Rovers were built in the first year of production; a year later, that figure had risen to 24,000. Eventually, Rover was churning out 1,000 a week, and its surprise success story was outstripping sales of its saloon cars.

Today, at the other end of its life, we can look back on a host of changes that have led to the car as we know it today. In fact, only a handful of the bits you’ll find on a modern Defender remain unchanged from those original production cars. Yet the basic design has stayed constant; proof, undoubtedly, of its fitness for purpose.

Right up to this two millionth example. And it was now my responsibility to make sure its new owner, determined via a charity auction, got two pristine door panels as part of the deal.

Skiver Alex finds a roll angle tester and early Landie to play with

Fortunately, I was teamed up with Lee, who fits Defender door cards day in, day out. If anyone could prevent me making a pig’s ear of this, it was him. In fact, I started off too tentatively; it turns out the clips that hold the main door card on needed a good shove to get them into their holes.

Once all the clips were pressed into place with a solid-sounding "thunk", it was then simply a case of adding the door furniture: handles, grabs and locking pins.

The driver’s-side door grab was trimmed in a fabric printed with lettering, and almost went on upside-down, but I caught my mistake before I screwed it in.

But with that exception, and thanks to Lee’s careful stewardship, it all went without a hitch.

Stepping back to admire my handiwork, it felt quite a privilege to have played a part – vanishingly small, but there nonetheless – in the Defender story. And, more importantly, not to have broken something along the way.

As I was on my way out of the factory, someone else was on her way in, to play her own part – Virginia McKenna, the BAFTA-winning actress best-known for portraying Joy Adamson in Born Free.

Today, McKenna helps run the Born Free Foundation, the charity she set up in 1984 with husband Bill Travers to rescue animals held captive in poor conditions around the world and promote wildlife conservation, and one of the organisations that’ll benefit from the sale of the two millionth Defender.

One to remember: McKenna's signature takes pride of place on the commemorative plaque

It would be easy to dismiss McKenna’s presence as just another publicity stunt by Land Rover, but after just a few minutes chatting with her, her heartfelt passion for the Defender was evident.

“We use them all the time,” she told me. “There’s nothing quite like them. Without them, we simply couldn’t do our work.”

So it was with, I suspect, a very genuine beaming grin that McKenna bolted the two millionth Defender’s numberplates on; a reminder of just how much this car has meant to so many people, not only here in the UK, but also arond the world.

This is a car that has forged new roads, discovered hitherto-unknown peoples, and pushed its way through freezing blizzards and sweltering rainforests alike. It’s also a car which, closer to home, has helped not just farmers, but countless countryside industries to prosper. And, of course, it has become a British icon.

Whatever Land Rover replaces the Defender with – as it will in 2018 – it’s going to have some mighty big shoes to fill. If there's one thing in the new model's favour, though, it's that it won't have been bolted together by yours truly.

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